What advantages does Scala have over Java for concurrent programming?

Question

How can scala make writing multi-threaded programs easier than in java? What can scala do (that java can't) to facilitate taking advantage of multiple processors?

Answer 1

The rules for concurrency are

1 avoid it if you can

2 share nothing if you can

3 share immutable objects if you can

4 be very careful (and lucky)

For rule 2 Scala helps by providing a nicely integrated message passing library out of the box in the form of the actors.

For rule 3 Scala helps to make everything immutable by default.

For rule 4 Scala's flexible syntax allows the creation of internal DSL's making it easier and less wordy to express what you need consicely. i.e. less place for surprises (if done well)